Poetry Anthology Notes- key terms to mention:

If

Dramatic monologue
Opinionated and forceful
If- conditional clause: love for his son conditional? Almost like a measurement
 Repetition used to stress idea
Juxtaposition: triumph, disaster  don’t be taken away by any extreme, live a balanced life
Triumph, disaster capitalized- it’s easy to put much importance on these too things (too
stressed)
Imposters- hyperbole
Will capitalized- emphasizes resilience of the human spirit
“You’ll be a Man” – final conclusion, capitalized = very important
“my son!”  only then he’s worthy of being his son

4 stanzas- 8n lines
Rhymes scheme: ABABDCDC  everything is in pairs; stresses consequences of the
actions/ideas presented in the poem
1st stanza: AAAABCBC – different to other stanzas; shows uncertainty of life
Repetition
Direct address to 3rd person
Iambic pentameter makes speaker sound lively and vigorous

- Feminist would see this as a very sexist view reflecting traditional British views

Prayer before Birth

Voice of an unborn baby: juxtaposition of innocence of the unborn baby vs. the evil of the
world
Anonymity of speaker- fits in with every child about to be born during WW2
Dramatic monologue
Repetition for emphasis
“O hear me”, “console me”… - imperatives
“O hear me” – prayer like
Me- personal pronouns; reinforcing individuality against Nazi totalism and humanizes the
individual
Water, grass, trees  essential for life
“White light”- idea of god
Lack of power
Cog in a machine – often what people in war feel
Let them not make me a stone & let them not spill me – don’t kill my humanity and spill my
blood
Otherwise kill me- personal message, rather die than be born
 kill me: Negative imperative: stark contrast with ‘hear me’, ‘console me’
Prayer- ironic: fetus should need to pray for necessities and protection but yet is forced to
by war
! Prayer isn’t answered

More and more lines- increasing desperation + urgency vs. visual symbolism of fetus
growing physically and emotionally: time is limited before it is born

Blessing

Semantic field of religion

Title- religious connotations
Skin- human skin/land
 starts the poem titled ‘Blessing’ by demonstrating the absence of it
Imagine- imperative, even the tiniest amount needs imagination
Voice of a kindly god- importance of water, personification
Splash, echo – onomatopoeia, stresses lack of water
Rush- onomatopoeia, sudden and unexpected
Silver crashes to the ground – metaphor, water is valuable
Congregation- ppl who go to church
List shows they’re using everything
Frantic, atmosphere of panic and desperation
Liquid sun- water reflects the sun
Highlights polished to perfection  contrasts with ‘skin cracks like a pod’
Blessing sings- water blesses them: personification of water, like a church service
Small bones- weak and vulnerable

Free verse- flow of water

Stanza shape reflects the bursting of water pipe
No particular beat- irregular flow of water (+ use of comma)

Sensory language escalates: drip -> splash -> echo -> roar
 conveys the huge impact

Search for my tongue

Direct address- who is the target audience?

You ask me… I ask you – questioning each other
Enjambment
Rot, rot  emphasizes the rotting
What would you do if you have two tongues… - establishes its primary conflict
“spit it out”- in speech mark- someone is telling her, implying that the mother tongue is now
something bad

But overnight while I dream- tone shift

Dreams (deepest level of consciousness) in mother tongue :
Spelled phonetically: even if we know what it sounds like we don’t know what it means-
what it is like for the speaker

Grows longer…. – triplets, growing back and stronger,

Bud opens, the bud opens- repetition for emphasis: regrowth, opposite of rotting
Blossoms: bud to blossom, developed metaphor of the bud

“Tongue”- extended metaphor for the speaker’s second language

1st person- direct address

Free verse- conversation like
Conversational tone invites the listener to engage

Half-past two

Once upon a… - like a fairytale (denotes child’s age) and introduces idea of time
Something Very Wrong- capital letters: child’s concept of having done “wrong” is very
significant as to merit the status of a proper noun, emphasizes crossness of teacher
() – poetic voice talking to himself
She- capitalization shows the great amount of importance and superiority connected to the
adult by the child
Something very wrong- repetition, emphasis
Tim- capitalized & stressed by child
Gettinguptime… - reinforces child perspective, presents innocence

The little eyes and two long legs…- personification: child-like comparison, innocence
Click- onomatopoeia; clock’s sound

So he waited… escaped for ever- time ‘stopped’ for him

Smell of old… into ever- sensory language: time seems to stop, only sensation still exists. The
child is overwhelmed and bewildered

Change of capitalization:
The child has changed his concepts enough to take them from upper case to lower case
ideas
Time, She become lower case- their ranks shifted and become less important and
intimidating for the child
 changing decisions on what is important

11 stanza poem divided into tercets- emphasizes ticking of a clock; simple structure- child-
like written
Free verse- voice of young innocent child
Piano

Childhood memory
Nostalgia
Parent-child relationship

Piano- extended metaphor for his mother & family relationship

Softly, dusk, is, singing- ‘s’ whispering consonants suggest quietness as the speaker listens to
this singing
 sibilance- hushed, magical atmosphere
Gentle tone established
Dusk- between day and night, gentleness in time of day
Vista- a long time ago
Boom, tingling- onomatopoeia, sensory language, sounds of piano
Small, poised feet- delicate, graceful, dainty, controlled
Insidious- a bit dangerous
Insidious mastery of song- music has a power
Heat of me- core; personification of the heart, given the human capacity of crying
emphasizes his longingness for his mother
Tinkling- sounds sweeter

So now- turning point

Vain- pointless
Black piano appassionato- too dominant
Glamour- spell and magic
Manhood- male part of speaker; thinking back to being a boy
Flood of remembrance- metaphor; emotions sweeping over him
Like a child- simile

The speaker sees ‘a child’ instead of himself: subtly shows how he cannot truly return to the
childhood he remembers

Lawrence- had an intense relationship with his mother: adored her

Lyric poem
AABB rhyme scheme- song like
Regular rhythm and rhyme- piano has a constant pace and a particular rhythm
Quatrains

Hide and Seek

Call out.. – imperative

! – exclamation marks; excitement- child’s voice
Child-like similes
The floor is cold- caesura
Prowling in- like a predator
Don’t breathe. Don’t move. Stay dumb- tricolon
It seems a long time….- volta: changing tone
Cold bites.. – personification
Dark damp smell of sand moves- contrasts with seaside
Ends with rhetorical question- it’s too late: what happened to all this opportunity in life?

Poem is an extended metaphor about lost opportunities and lost friendship

First person  second person: the author’s reflecting on his childhood
Free verse, but a sound of rhyme present
Excitement  disappointment
- short sentences show worry and excitement
Questioning the adult self

Sonnet 116

Metaphysical poem- about an idea

Impediments- related to prayer book in marriage service
Which alters when.. – it isn’t love if it changes when something else changes
O no- emphasis
Ever-fixed mark- love is always there: permanent
Tempest- storms, difficulties in life
Star to every wandering bark… - love is a guide, navigating
Love’s not time’s fool.. – love doesn’t change with time, even with death
Rosy lips and cheeks- young person
Bending sickle’s- personification of death
Compass- related to age of exploration
Edge of doom- death

Ends with rhyming couplet- a joke from Shakespeare+ reinforcing his point of love

Sonnet- 14 lines with regular rhyme scheme, 10 syllables per line

ABAB rhyme scheme
Rhyming couplet to end
Iambic pentameter

Conceit (central idea): Love never changes, it is a compass, it endures, and guides our life
Philosophical examine on what love is
Extended metaphor of how love is permanent

La Belle Dame Sans Merci

A ballad- poem telling a story

The beautiful women without mercy

O – shows pity
Alone and palely loltering- ill and pale
Sedge has withered- everything’s dying
1st stanza shows concern and pity
O what can aill thee- repetition
Haggard- ill, miserable
Harvest’s done- autumn’s end

Lily on thy brow- metaphor

Lily- representation of death
Fading rose- representation of women
 acknowledging he’s been seduced by a women
Landscape is withering too

Stanza 4: change in narrative voice to Knight’s

Faery’s child- magical creature

Hair was long… eyes were wild.. – wild, free spirit women, seductive+ dangerous
Fragrant zone- seductive
Sweet moan- seductive
Sing a faery’s song- like a siren’s song: she’s creating danger

She captivated him

She took me- lady In control

Wild wild eyes- wild, free spirit, passion

Lulled me asleep- put him into a charmed sleep, imperatives

Pale kings.. half-life state: all trapped between life and death

Poem at 39

How I miss my father! – exclamation mark for emphasis + repetition

Wish- creates a regretful tone

Now- present state

Seasoning none of my… - metaphor for her free spirit

Look and cook- internal rhyme emphasizes the connection between their personalities
Cooking, writing, chopping.. – practical, active verbs

Free verse- represents flowing memory + narrator’s free spirit

No steady meter- all lines relatively short: memories often appear as partial thoughts and
incomplete ideas
Enjambment- allows the speaker’s thoughts to bleed into each other

War Photographer

In his dark room… ordered rows- enjambment

Finally alone- has a hectic life, sense of relief
Spools of suffering- sibilance: ‘hush’ sound- reflects the solitude
Ordered rows- lines of photographs
As though this were a church..- simile: almost as if he’s having a funeral for those who
suffered in war
Mass- religious connotation, photographer vies his work as sacred
Belfast.. Phnom Penh- war zones
 separate: he’s putting photos into separate categories, also with separating the
photographs and his thoughts
All flesh is grass- metaphor, phrase from Bible

He has a job to do- simple language lacks emotion

Tremble- PTSD
Rural England- buried in middle of sentence, far from war zones
Ordinary pain which simple weather can dispel… explode beneath the feet- contrast +
juxtaposition
 simple images of life contrasted so everyone can relate
Nightmare heat- metaphor for heat of explosions

Something is happening- short sentence

Half-formed ghost- took the picture when he’s half alive + photo is half published
Someone must- tell others pain of war
A hundred agonies- pictures

Sunday’s supplement- sibilance: bitter and angry

Tears.. beers- internal rhyme: short distance between crying and drinking

Ends with him going to another war zone: cyclical nature of the photographer’s job creates a
a sense of futility

4 stanzas each containing 6 lines- like how his photos are layed out regularly
Regular rhyme scheme- reflects the monotony of the photographer’s routine
Each stanza ends with a rhyming couplet
3rs person omniscient-
Narrator is all-seeing and all-knowing to fully understand the internal thoughts of the
narrator
detachment: the job forces him to be

All character are anonymous- represents people in general

The Tyger

Tyger- metaphor for train? Good & evil

Fearful symmetry- artificial; rigid: not a product of nature

 structurally the poem has symmetry too
Thine eyes- lights of the train/eyes of the tiger
Questions asked
Fire?- fire of creation- did god create these things?
Sinews of thy heart- crafting machines/ universe/ nature
Dread hand.. dread feet- aw; feared

Hammer- god as a black smith

Furnace, anvil- semantic field

Threw down their spears- metaphor for weather

Watere’d heaven with their tears- metaphor for weather

Lamb- capitalized- to do with Jesus: did god who made Jesus also make the industry?

Dare frame thy fearful symmetry:

Could  dare
Contrast between Tyger & Lamb: tyger- fearful, lamb- innocent

Sees the power of the Tyger

Blake’s addressing the Tyger as:

1. Good vs. Evil

2. Power
3. Creation
4. Question of innocence

Is the Tyger created by the industrial revolution?

Quatrains
Regular rhyme scheme- reflecting train chugging through the countryside
Repetition used- symbolize the sound of the train

My Last Duchess

Possessive pronoun ‘my’: ownership

Dramatic monologue- biased
Shows abuse of power

On the wall- proud of the painting, displayed

As if she were alive- the duchess is dead
That piece a wonder, now- now suggests at one point he didn’t like the painting
Fra Pandolf’s- Duke: jealous, possessive man- thought it was only safe to let a Priest paint
the painting
… sit and look at her?- Rhetorical question; asking a question but it’s actually an order

Since none puts by…- the painting is behind a curtain: Duke still wants to control and
possess his wife after her death
Too soon made glad, too easily impressed - she’s too easily impressed: should have more
arrogance due to Duke’s status
Looks went everywhere- she liked everything she looked at
My favour at her breast- jewelry

… but thanked somehow- Duke thinks she thanks them by flirting

Nine-hundred-years- His family goes back 900 years: thinks he should be in power due to
long family history
Duke thinks she was inquadate
Never to stoop- stoop=to lower yourself, ‘Never’ emphasizes this
 thinks he’s lowered his status by marrying her
Passed without much the same smile- she didn’t treat him differently
I gave commands- he killed her, telling someone else to show his power
All smiles topped together. Full stop physically shows this end of smile + life
Will’t pleaes you rise- imperative

Showing the count around whose daughter he’ll marry

Neptune, taming a horse- referring to a statue/object- he sees his last wife like an object too
Claus.. – name dropping

AABB rhyme scheme- controlled precise rhyme: Duke likes to be in control

A lot of caesura and enjambment- Duke is not totally in control: there is irregularity in his
sentences
Structure reflects a person who likes to be in control but he’s not: he’s off balance
 dramatic monologue- one character is talking and dominating, we don’t see other’s
perspective
One long stanza- he doesn’t want to let go of control

Dramatic Monologue
Objectifies his duchess- treats her as an object
Control, jealousy possessiveness
Conversational tone
Poem is completely based on the painting: poem framed by the painting

Duchess vs Duke personality

Half Caste

Negative word used to describe mix-race

Standing on one leg- metaphor, sarcastic tone

Yuself- spelling is phonetic, direct address

When Picasso.. metaphor
 no capital: he ignore the importance

Light an shadow.. – metaphor; another example of what half-caste can mean

So spiteful…- how people are also spiteful

Explain yuself- repetition

Tchaikovsky.. – there’s nothing wrong with mixing things together in nature, so why not in
me?

Half of mih ear… - half caste aspect

Yu must- imperative

Caribbean accent- narrator’s saying it in his own voice

Repetition to emphasis his point

Free verse- emphasizing that he doesn’t want to be restricted by a particular structure: he’s
free to have these thoughts
No full stops or comma- not restricted by punctuation
Shape of poem: if you place a mirror along the line you will get a whole poem
 represents half a person (half caste)
Enjambment shows anger

Do not go gentle into that good night

Giving advice: son to father

Don’t give up easily

That good night- metaphor for dying

Close of day- metaphor for death
Rage, rage- imperative + repetition for emphasis
Dying of the light- metaphor for death

Even wise men do not give up

Good men have regrets in their last moments
Wild men enjoyed life but learnt too late now life’s important
Grave men- double moaning: grave
Blinding sight- oxymoron

My father- general specific

Sad height- metaphor; point of death
Curse, bless- oxymoron
I pray- desperate; praying and asking his father
Do not… dying of the light- finally brings the two lines together: reinforcing the end- death

5 tercets + 1 quatrain
 quatrain in the end to make the poem longer: hang on to your life for longe
Direct address
Repetition
Remember

Remember- imperative
Silent land- metaphor for death
Turning stay- lingering state, half dead
Darkness and corruption- dead body
Vestige- trace
Repetition of remember

Sonnet- 14 lines
Iambic pentameter
ABBA rhyme scheme